"Wonder Woman" of Warner Bros. topped box office in North America with an estimated 100.5 million U.S. dollars debut weekend, making the Patty Jenkins-directed superhero film the biggest ever opening weekend for a female director.
The latest DC Comics superhero movie, starring Gal Gadot, is the first big-budget superhero movie with a female lead to be directed by a woman. The previous record-holder for top opening for a female director was Sam Taylor-Johnson's "Fifty Shades of Grey" which debuted with an 85 million U.S. dollars weekend in 2015.
And overseas, "Wonder Woman" also won the weekend with 122.5 million U.S. dollars from 55 markets for a global cume of 223 million U.S. dollars.
"The movie helps to get a lackluster summer so far heading in the right direction. A perfectly cast Gal Gadot in the lead role coupled with a great release date, killer marketing campaign and above all a great movie that has both critics and audiences buzzing on social media, contributed to this better than expected result," said movie analyst Paul Dergarabedian at comScore
ComScore/Screen Engine's PostTrak shows that audiences gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and the audience split was 52 percent female and 48 percent male.
Fox's PG animated superhero movie "Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie" was a distant second place, bringing in an estimated 23.5 million U.S. dollars in its opening weekend. The animated family-friendly action adventure based on the children's novel series "Captain Underpants" by Day Pilkey.
Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" moved to the third place with an estimated 21.6 million U.S. dollars. The fifth installment of the "Pirates" franchise has earned 386.6 million U.S. dollars to date internationally for a global total combined with North America of 501.2 million U.S. dollars.
Disney and Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" landed in the fourth place with an estimated 9.7 million U.S. dollars, bringing its five-week total to 355.5 million U.S. dollars in North America and 816.6 million U.S. dollars globally.
Paramount's "Baywatch" finished fifth with an estimated 8.5 million U.S. dollars in its second weekend.
